After a very early start and a ride to the airport with a very nosy taxi driver, I was soon jetting off to Limoges. An hour and half flight time later I landed in one of the smallest airports I’ve ever been to. Another taxi ride, this time with a very quiet driver took me to Limoges train station to continue my journey to La Souterraine. My internet search told me there might be a bus from the station that would take me to Le Grand Bourg, but as it only ran four times a week it would have been too optimistic to hope that Friday would be my lucky bus day. My host, Susie, very kindly picked me up.

Susie is a Brit and she owns the Tea shop, the bed and breakfast and the house next door. The other members of the family are; Pongo the dog she adopted while living in Morocco, Tripod the three legged cat, while she was a kitten a dog, (not Pongo), mistook her for a toy and bit off her leg, then there’s Colin the tabby cat with an identity disorder, he and Pongo think they are Yorkshire Terriers as they only eat dry food made especially for that breed.

There was another Workawayer here, Karet a French language student from Estonia. She had already been working for two weeks and had another two weeks to go.

My room was small and perfectly formed and I knew instantly I would be happy.

When a person finds themselves single again there is always the dilemma of what to do for a summer holiday. A lot of my friends are married with younger children or in relationships. My sons are adults now and certainly do not want to spend a couple of weeks in a foreign land with their old mum. I’m not really a lying in the sun kind of person and definitely wouldn’t want to do that on my own.

So having scoured the internet for ideas for holidays for billy no mates I found a site called Workaway. In return for 5 hours of work a day, 5 days a week, (on average), a host will provide accommodation and food. There are hosts in a variety of settings offering all kinds of work worldwide. As this was my first adventure I decided to stay close-ish to home and look for a placement in France.

Imagine my delight as I found a vintage tea shop in the Limousin region in a small town called Le Grand Bourg. My joy continued when I discovered that I could fly directly there from Bristol.

According to the site, the work included baking cakes and bread, serving customers and helping out in the bed and breakfast attached to the tea shop. As none of this sounded too taxing I booked myself in.

The next few posts will tell the story of my grand adventure en Francais.